‘The first practice we did without Jay was really difficult. We weren’t expecting that – just his non-presence there was tough.

‘Pat my brother was in town from Tasmania for the funeral. Pat will be filling in for Jay at this Saturday’s Smallworld Festival. We wanted to introduce Pat to the songs and that gave him two weeks to rehearse them and try to get them as close to the way that Jay used to play them.

‘It was the day after the funeral. We were all a bit exhausted. We’d all had the night out the night before at the pub that Jay used to drink at. We thought we’d jumped over this big hurdle in getting through the funeral and then all of a sudden, we had to go through a band practice without him being there.

‘This will be our first gig since his passing. If the gigs hadn’t been booked we probably wouldn’t have played for an extended period. It was Jay’s funeral we wanted to pay for.

‘We’ve also got a couple of gigs booked in Melbourne and my other brother will fill in on one of those plus another bass player who Jay taught how to play bass and he’s very close to us.

‘We’re not getting a replacement bass player. He’s not being replaced. People who are close to him are filling his shoes in remembrance. Once all these shows are done we’re going to take a long time off and who knows? For the time being I don’t even want to think about it.

‘On Saturday we are chucking in Acid Rain in the set because that was a song that Jay wrote. Just us being there and doing the gig is a tribute to Jay in itself. Same with the audience – he’s still fresh in everyone’s mind.

‘Every now and then you realise he’s not there. It comes in waves. Sometimes when you least expect it.’

Tumbleweed’s Lenny Curley about his brother Jay who passed away suddenly last month.